Building Your Installation from the Project Assistant

InstallShield 2024

Project: This information applies to the following project types:

Basic MSI
InstallScript
InstallScript MSI

Tip:The following information applies to releases that are built within InstallShield (without integration with Visual Studio). For information on building an InstallShield release from within Visual Studio, see Building Releases in Microsoft Visual Studio.

To build your installation:

1. In the Project Assistant, open the Build Installation page.
2. Select the installation image types you want to build.

Note:The Single MSI Package option should be selected for machines that already have Windows Installer installed them since no attempt will be made to check and install the engine if it is not there.

3. If you want InstallShield to automatically copy your installation to another location after the build finishes, click the Optional distribution settings link for each build option and specify the location.

If you want InstallShield to distribute your installation after the build finishes, click the Optional distribution settings link for each build option and select the Distribute After Build check box.

4. To digitally sign your Setup.exe file to assure your end users that the code within your application has not been modified or corrupted, click the Digitally Sign Setup hyperlink. The Digitally Sign Setup dialog box opens. Configure the settings as needed.
5. Click Build Installations.

The Output window opens, and the Build tab displays information about the progress of the build. The build is finished when the Build tab displays the log file information.

Tip:The Signing tab in the Installation Designer lets you specify which portions of your installation should be digitally signed at build time. InstallShield enables you to sign any and all of the following files in a release, depending on what type of project you are using:

Windows Installer package (.msi file or .msm file) for Basic MSI, InstallScript MSI, and Merge Module projects
Setup.exe file for Basic MSI and InstallScript MSI projects
Media header file for InstallScript projects
Package (self-extracting single-executable file) for InstallScript projects
Any files in your release, including your application files

To learn more, see Digitally Signing a Release and Its Files at Build Time.

See Also